Bank connection

With a bank connection, Arca fetches your transactions straight from your bank every day. No more exporting CSV files.

How it works

Arca talks to your bank through Enable Banking, a licensed European service that gives apps read-only access to bank accounts, with your permission (this is what the European PSD2 rules are for).

• It’s free for your own accounts. You create a free Enable Banking account and register a small “app” for yourself. Because it only reads accounts you link yourself, there’s no contract and no cost.
• Read-only. Arca can see balances and transactions. It can never move money.
• You give permission at your bank, in your bank’s own app or website. That permission lasts up to 180 days; after that you renew it with one tap.
• Your keys stay on your server. The key you get from Enable Banking is stored by Arca and never sent back to your browser.

Which banks

Dutch banks such as ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank, ASN Bank, RegioBank, SNS, Triodos Bank and Van Lanschot. When you connect, Arca shows the full list Enable Banking offers for the Netherlands; some are marked Beta.

Not covered: bunq, and ABN AMRO credit cards. For those, keep using CSV import.

Before you start: your redirect address

Enable Banking asks for a redirect URL when you register your app. Here’s what that means in plain words: after you give permission at your bank, your browser needs to know where to go back to. That’s your own Arca, at a fixed page.

Take the address you type to open Arca and add /api/bank/callback:

You open Arca at	Your redirect URL
https://arca.example.com	https://arca.example.com/api/bank/callback
https://finance.mydomain.nl	https://finance.mydomain.nl/api/bank/callback

It has to match exactly, including https:// and any port number. You can add more than one if you open Arca at different addresses.

Your Arca needs an https address

Enable Banking only accepts redirect addresses that start with https://. If you open Arca at a plain http://192.168.… address at home, set up a reverse proxy with HTTPS first (see Install), and open Arca at that address when you connect.

Step 1: create your Enable Banking account

1. Go to enablebanking.com and enter your email address. There’s no separate sign-up: your first sign-in creates the account.
2. Open the link in the email you receive. You land in the Control Panel.
3. Optional, but a good idea: add your phone number under Profiles for an extra sign-in step.

Step 2: register your app

1. In the Control Panel, open API applications and add a new application.
2. Environment: choose Production (the real banks). Sandbox is a test environment with a fake bank, only useful if you want to try things out first.
3. Key: choose generate in browser.
4. Name: anything you like, for example “Arca at home”.
5. Redirect URLs: your redirect address from above.
6. Production also asks for a short description, a contact email, and links to a privacy policy and terms. For a personal app this is just a formality: a page on your own domain, or the Arca repository, is fine.
7. Choose Register.

Two things now happen: your app gets an application ID (a long code like 3f2b8c1e-…), and your browser downloads a private key file ending in .pem.

Keep the .pem file safe

The private key can’t be downloaded again, and anyone who has it together with your application ID can read the accounts you linked. Store it like a password, for example in your password manager.

Step 3: activate it with your own accounts

Your new app starts as Inactive. To switch it on:

1. Open the app in the Control Panel and choose Activate by linking accounts.
2. You’re sent to your bank. Confirm in your bank’s app (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank…), or scan the QR code on a computer.
3. Accept the terms. The app now says Active (restricted): it can read only the accounts you just linked, which is exactly what you want.
4. Repeat for every bank you want in Arca.

Step 4: connect Arca

1. In Arca, open Settings → Import (the Import item in the sidebar takes you there) and choose the Bank connection tab.
2. Paste your Application ID.
3. Open the .pem file in a text editor (Notepad, TextEdit) and copy everything, including the BEGIN and END lines. Paste it into Private key.
4. Choose Test. When it says “It works”, choose Save.
5. Choose Connect a bank, search for your bank and pick it.
6. Confirm at your bank. You come back to Arca automatically.
7. Link accounts: for each account the bank shared, choose which account in Arca it belongs to, New account from this one, or Don’t sync. Accounts whose IBAN Arca already knows are linked for you.
8. Choose Save and sync.

Your transactions come in, go through your rules and merchants, and anything new lands in Needs a category.

Older history

Banks usually share about the last 90 days on the first sync. Import a CSV for anything older; Arca recognises the overlap and won’t count anything twice.

The daily sync

While Arca is running, it syncs every connected bank once a day by itself. Each sync also looks back a week, to pick up payments your bank booked late. You can always choose Sync now for one bank or Sync all.

The sidebar shows when your banks last synced, under Import. A dot on the Bank connection tab means a consent ran out, and the Sync log under the banks lists every sync with what it brought in.

Banks only allow a few syncs a day without you present. If you see “The bank allows only a few syncs a day”, just try again later.

Reconnect when the permission runs out

After up to 180 days, your bank’s permission ends. The bank then shows Consent expired in Arca, and the sidebar says so too.

Choose Reconnect, confirm at your bank again, and you’re done. Your account links and everything already imported stay as they are.

Disconnect a bank

Choose Disconnect on the bank’s card. Arca stops syncing and closes the permission. Transactions already imported stay.

Something went wrong?

Message	What to do
That private key can’t be read	Paste the whole .pem file again, BEGIN and END lines included.
Enable Banking refused the application ID or key	Check that the ID and the key belong to the same app.
Enable Banking didn’t accept the request	The address you opened Arca at isn’t one of your app’s redirect URLs. Add it in the Control Panel, or open Arca at the address you registered.
The bank didn’t give access	You cancelled or something failed at the bank. Choose Connect a bank again.
An import or sync is running	Wait until the other import or sync is finished.